Visuals of your Characters

Hey guys,

I'm one of those people who has problems getting a good picture of my character into my head. I see people who make dolls, draw pictures, find celeb look-a-likes, but I can't get into any of that.

How do you visualize your characters? Do you have pictures of them? Share, share!

I also have a terribly difficult time getting a good picture of my characters into my head, unless their features are based on someone already in existence. I would draw them, except I can't draw people. Flowers, landscapes, ect., yes. People, no.

So I've got approx. weight, height, hair color, skin color, and eye color, but I'm pretty sketchy on the rest of the details. And some of those details have changed between drafts, so I forget sometimes. Heh. I find that some of my best scenes, the ones that actually grip me, even being the author, include characters that I have a good mental picture of. So I should really get going on that, huh? Maybe I should surf for celeb. look-a-likes. It would probably help, if I could find people, but I'm terrible at it, so we'll see.

I'm the same as Amanda. I know the basics but I can't really visualize their faces. Every once and a while I'll see an actor or actress on tv and think 'they would play a really good Paul in the story' but they never look exactly the way I think they do if that makes any sense.

I can picture what my characters look from afar, but when I look too close I can't make out their faces. But things like eye color or the way their hair sits I know. Just the face as a whole I can't picture. :] Sometimes, instead of seeing an actor &thinking of my character, I do the opposite. I see a hot celebrity *cough*TaylorLautner*cough* &base my characters looks on the person lol. Is that lame?

Same as most people, I don't have a 100% clear image of my characters in my head, they are always kind of out-of-focus... I know, but I don't know. I will, however, use celebrity pictures to get an idea of hair color/face structure/eye color /face feature etc. to help me along because I am a visual learner and so in most aspects a picture helps me to write better. I'll also draw them (I usually have the face turned away or it's inaccurate, hehe) and I have made a doll or two before as well, but those were just for gathering dust on my shelf so I could smile at them. ;P

Should probably clarify by "make a doll" I meant those dress-up dolls online.

Interesting answers. I have a folder of inspirational pictures for each novel, and I try to choose people with similar features to my characters. By the end of my queried novel, I couldn't imagine anything other than one of the girls in the one of the pictures as my MC, if that makes sense.